Comedian Bill Cosby wins rights to Fat Albert name in cyberspace
TMCnet
TMC Launches New Sites ::  NGC  |  4GWE  |  Green Tech  |  Satellite  |  IT |  IVR |  ITEXPO SHOW NEWS  |  Healthcare  |  Cisco News  |  Skype News  |  Microsoft News  |  AVAYA News
  INDUSTRIES
  VERTICALS
  HORIZONTAL
  PUBLICATIONS
  FREE RESOURCES
  INTERNATIONAL
  EVENTS
  ABOUT TMC
  COMMUNITIES
TMCnet CHANNELS
#1 VoIP Enabler: Risk-free, Quick & Easy Deployment
3G, VoIP & IPTV Performance Management
Advanced Carrier Services
All-in-one IPPBX
Appliance Deployment
ATCA
Auto Dialer
Billing
BPA (3rd Party Remote Call Monitoring)
Business Automation
Business Phone Systems
Business VoIP
Call Center
Call Center Certification
Call Center Digital Signage
Call Center Furniture
Call Center Hiring
Call Center Management
Call Center On Demand
Call Center Outsourcing
Call Center Scheduling
Call Center Software
Call Center Solutions
Call Center Training
Call Center Workforce Management
Call Monitoring
Call Recording
Conference Call
Conference Phones
Conferencing
Contact Center Software
CRM Solutions
Dialer
DID/DDI
Digital Signage
e911
E911 Hosted Solutions
Ethernet Extender
Fax
Fax Over IP
HD Conference
Headsets
Hosted Call Center
Hosted Contact Center
Hosted PBX
Integrated Communications
IP Fax
IP Phone System
IP Phones
IVR
Lead Management Software
Master Agent
Mobile Management
Mobile Unified Communications
Mobile Video
NEBS
Open Source CRM
Phone Systems
Predictive Dialer
SIP
Speech Recognition and Text to Speech
Telecom Expense Management
Telecom Training
Telemarketing Software
Virtual Call Center
Virtual Office
Virtual PBX
Voice Broadcast
Voice Management
Voice Over IP
Voice Peering
Voicemail Replacement
VoIP Contact Center
VoIP Developer
VoIP Gateways
VoIP Monitoring
VoIP Robustness Testing
VoIP Test Solutions
VoIPSwitch
Web Conferencing
Web Meeting
Wholesale VoIP
Wireless Expense Management
Wireless Management
Workforce Management
Workforce Optimization
Share
TMCnews
[September 12, 2005]

Comedian Bill Cosby wins rights to Fat Albert name in cyberspace

The Associated Press

Comedian Bill Cosby won control of an Internet domain name including the name of the Fat Albert cartoon he created in the 1960s, under a ruling issued Monday by a United Nations panel.

Arbitrators for the World Intellectual Property Organization ordered the transfer of the domain name http://www.fatalbert.org to the American actor, who had complained that it infringed his trademark rights and was being used in bad faith to divert Internet traffic to a commercial search engine and a Web site selling sexually explicit products.



The ruling upheld Cosby's complaint against the individual that registered the name -- Sterling Davenport, of Loretto, Tennessee.

Cosby created the Fat Albert cartoon character of the late 1960s as part of his standup comedy routine about his childhood in Philadelphia. The children's series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids first appeared on the U.S. television network CBS in 1972 and a Fat Albert movie was released last year.



Arbitrator John Kidd noted he had no response from Davenport, but said that "the respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in the domain name."

Kidd also concluded that the domain name was "identical or confusingly similar to the complainant's Fat Albert marks" and the trademark was used deliberately and confusingly.

"That on its own is sufficient in the panel's view to constitute bad faith registration and use," he added.

A number of celebrities have already won the Internet version of their names back through U.N. arbitration, including Morgan Freeman, Julia Roberts, Madonna, Nicole Kidman, Pamela Anderson, Pierce Brosnan and Carmen Electra.

Anyone can register a domain name for a few dollars, which has led to so-called "cybersquatters."

The U.N. arbitration system, which started in 1999, allows those who think they have the right to a domain to get it back without having to fight a costly legal battle or pay large sums of money.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Discussions:
Be the first to post a comment on this page!
 
By  
TMCnet
+ Add to the Discussion
Receive more news in your Email
Featured White Papers
Featured White Paper RSS feed
10 reasons to switch to an IP PBX
Satisfy Your Customers the First Time, Every Time
Application Whitelisting: A new security paradigm
view all white papers…
Top Stories
Today's TMCnet Top Stories and News Articles
CBPA and CEBP Are Not the Same
Facebook Rearranging Privacy Settings
WCAI Commends Obama Administration for Releasing Broadband Funds
Joost Targets Online Video Platforms
U.S. to Spend $4 Billion on Broadband in Rural …
more of today's top stories...
Related VoIP News
Latest IP Communitions and VoIP News
Qwest Ethernet Services Selected by the State of Utah
J.D. Power and Associates Ranks Verizon Business Highest in Customer Satisfaction
Cadence GRE Technology Reduces Hitachi's PCB Design-Cycle Time
Coleman Technologies Offers Borderless Unified Cisco Network
Kyrgyzstan's National Telecom Operator Selects Cisco's Technologies

Subscribe FREE to all of TMC's monthly magazines. Click here now.